Archive for April, 2007
Some History on Atari’s Agent X
I have met one owner of an Agent X arcade game, although I didn’t know anything about it when I met him, nor did I even see the game during my visit. It wasn’t until successive conversions later that I found out about Agent X’s rarity.
This is what Joe had to say about Agent X, recalling as best he could the history of the game off the top of his head and what he had to go through to find his;
“On the Cloak & Dagger, it gets a little collector/geeky/anal. When Atari originally developed the game, the name was Agent X. Then Hollywood made the movie Cloak & Dagger and asked Atari to make a game for it. Agent X was already a version of the game. Rumor has it that only 20 dedicated Agent X units were ever made and these were only made for field testing purposes, they were never meant for public release. Of those 20, 7 were Agent X, and the other 13 were Cloak & Dagger. Cloak & Dagger was released for general purchase in kit only form, for converting other games, specifically Williams games (Stargate, Defender, Robotron, Joust). So game play wise, Agent X and Cloak & Dagger are exactly the same, only difference is the title screen.”
“Cabinet wise, conversion units are cheap and relatively easy to find. They sell on ebay for less than $400. Dedicated units are close to impossible, as there were only 20 or so made, and the ones out there are typically in collectors hands that don’t want to sell them. The last one I heard selling was a Cloak & Dagger which sold for $3,000. An Agent X is even more rare. At one point someone offered me $10,000 for my Agent X. I’m sure that’s no longer a valid offer as that person has since got a dedicated Cloak & Dagger. But it was a nice offer to get. Certainly one of the most valuable in my collection.”
“Probably way more information than you wanted, but it’s one of my prize games, so I like talking about it! It was a pretty big search to find and get.”
So basically my interpretation of this information is that of the few Agent X’s that were produced, most of them are or at one time were owned by Atari employees. Now they made have made their hands into serious collectors who know their value, similar to Joe, but the only way you might get one is to start the way he did and track down some old Atari employees.
Why reproduce artwork for Agent X?
Well, for two main reasons. I like the two people I have met, so it is a good opportunity to show them some good will in networking. Also, because Agent X is so rare, hopefully it will mean I am one of the few people who have a copy of vector artwork for the Agent X kickplate, sideart, marquee, speaker overlays, control panel, or whatever else I decided to vectorize and prepare for reproduction.
Update – March 23, 2009
If you look below in the comments, one of the original creators that worked on Agent X left a comment, and basically confirmed all of the information that Joe shared about the game. I have no doubts that on his hunt Joe probably talked with Rusty about the history and that is where most of his ‘unconfirmed’ rumors came from.
Finished first piece of artwork for Mr. Do!
Finally getting a chance to post an image of the Wind Up Mr. Do character that I got to trace last week.
Weird looking guy, but hey, I like the game and it is the only real sideart I know of. Other characters are cooler looking, I may get to them next week.
Looking into Pengo PCB Repair
Was in communication today with a guy Alex Yeckley recommended that could possibly repair my Pengo board. In anticipation of that, I thought I would finally get those photos online tonight what I was seeing on screen.
April 16, 2007
We are starting to think Nokes is pretty darn smart. We realized that after Saturday morning, he hasn’t had an acccident in the house since, and before, usually it was once a day. Last night, when we put him in his big doggie box. He was scratching and restless for a little while, and then right when Sarah turned off the lights, he settled down and went to bed.
Today at lunch, I kind of fell up the stairs with my other hand full, and him in my left. He went all the rest of the way up the stairs on his own, and later we set him down to practice again. He didn’t do it quite as easy the second time, but he went the whole way up by himself.
Mr. Agent X vectorized
Traced “Agent X” coming out of the elevator tonight, so I have one character down. The sideart really is a great design, simplicity
is the strongest aspect of the art, and bold lines. The border, however, is going to suck big ones. Lots of little squares and details to account for.
Richard emailed me today and said that he should be able, for sure, to get the kickplate made, so I may now turn my attentions to reproducing that first.
April 15, 2007
Today we went back to Petsmart to officially adopt him, but PAK wasn’t there. So we got him a new rope to play with instead.
On the way back he tried to climb onto me as I was driving and got outstretched over the console.
Replacing more caps on the EZ-20 monitor
Got outside today and took off about 5-6 more caps from the monitor. But, for now, I am not rushing, because yesterday at the
Indianapolis USAmusements I bought a nice working Dig Dug that hopefully I can use to trade. Kind of weird having two of them now, after so much time and work, and now I have two. But it is nice to have another working machine that I can play, even if it is a game that I am not crazy about.
